If it only soon might happen
That at last in coffee's stead,
Ere I yet shall go to bed,
I a gallant lover find me!

9. Recit. (T) Narrator

Old Mister Schlendrian now goes to seek
How he for this his daughter Liesgen
Soon may a husband here procure;
But Liesgen secretly makes known:
No suitor come into my house
Unless he's made to me the promise
And put it in the marriage contract, too,
That I shall be allowed to brew,
Whenever I desire, my coffee.

10. Chorus (S, T, B)

A cat its mousing never quits,
A girl remains a coffee-nurser.

The mothers love to use the brew,
The grandmas fondly drank it too,
So who would now the daughters censure?

1. This name translates into something like "Stick-in-the-mud" or
"Slowpoke."